Contents

Synopsis

Directly following 6.22 The Man Who Knew Too Much, Bobby, Dean, and Sam prepare to bow down to Castiel, who has declared himself the new God. Castiel stops them, however, because he knows that they do not respect and love him as he wishes—they only fear him. Instead of smiting them as he threatened, he leaves without healing Sam, whose mind is in tatters after remembering his time in Lucifer's Cage.

Right after leaving Dean, Sam, and Bobby; Castiel returns to Heaven, where he kills all of the angels who sided with Raphael against him and declares that he is the new God. Later, Castiel appears in a small town church and, in front of an entire congregation, tells a reverend that, while he does not care about a person's sexual orientation, he does care about hypocrites who claim to speak for God. He implies that the reverend's own sexual activities make him a hypocrite and then kills him without touching him. The congregation is in shock, and, after replacing a stained glass image of Jesus with the image of himself, Castiel is momentarily staggered, hearing whispers of his name being called. Castiel leaves the church leaving a burn mark on a pew he used to steady himself.

After the confrontation with Castiel, Dean and Bobby take an unconscious Sam back to Bobby's place. Dean and Bobby are at a loss as to what they can do to challenge Castiel, and Dean decides to fix the Impala until Sam wakes up, at which point he plans to fix Sam. When Sam finally wakes up, however, he insists that he's fine. Bobby catches him acting oddly, but lets it go when news stories about a "young, sexy man" in a raincoat start to crop up. Over 200 religious leaders, the Ku Klux Klan, and a group of New Age motivational speakers are brought down, but Dean is resolved to stay out of Castiel's way despite Sam's misgivings.

While Castiel is busy bringing down corrupt religious leaders and healing the leper colonies in India, Crowley is hiding in a trailer covered in angel warding. Crowley is just having a drink of scotch when Castiel appears in his trailer despite his protections. Crowley thinks that Castiel is there to smite him, but instead Castiel makes Crowley an offer: he'll allow Crowley to live if he returns to his post as the "King of Hell" and takes the souls that Castiel allows him. Castiel notes that he would have done away with Hell completely, if not for the fact that he needed it as a threat to hold over his enemies, and because he and Crowley need to keep Michael in Lucifer's cage. Crowley doesn't have much of a choice, so he accepts Castiel's offer.

Back at Bobby's place, Sam's mental state is very unstable. He has a disturbing dream and wakes in a panic, but when he seeks out Dean and Bobby he overhears them talking about him. Dean wants to believe that Sam is okay, so Sam lets him. Instead of telling him about his problems, Sam updates him on more of Castiel's actions. As they talk, Dean gets an idea about what can stop Castiel, and they summon Crowley into a devil's trap. They want him to give them a ritual that will allow them to bind Death, similar to the way that Lucifer bound Death, and make him kill Castiel.

Once Crowley delivers the ritual, Bobby does some research regarding the necessary components. The one item they'll have to steal is a fulgurite, a crystallized lightning bolt, and they drive nine hours to the home of an affluent couple that owns one. Unfortunately, Dr. and Mrs. Weiss interrupt them mid-heist, and Dean is forced to tie them up and gag them. They are present when Bobby, Dean, and Sam prepare and perform the ritual to bind Death.

The ritual is successful, and Death appears, bound. He thinks that he has been summoned regarding Sam's hallucinations, and Dean looks to Sam, surprised by the news. Death asserts that he can't help Sam (there's only "one wall per customer"), and Dean tells him instead that they want him to kill Castiel. Before they can convince him, though, Castiel appears. He threatens to kill them all, but Dean reminds him that Death is under their control. It appears that they are at a stalemate.

During their standoff, Death confronts Castiel about his deteriorating state. Castiel's vessel is burning out, similar to an Angel's vessel, and Death tells him that it is because he absorbed things from Purgatory—things older than souls—that he can't contain. Long before God created the first angels and men, he created the first beasts: Leviathans. They were locked away in Purgatory because they threatened to tear apart the world, and now these Leviathans are within Castiel. Death warns that Castiel is just a thin membrane between the old ones and their world.

Castiel scoffs at Death's warnings and threatens to kill him, and Death ignores his threats, telling him that he isn't a God. As their bickering escalates, Dean orders Death to kill Castiel, but Castiel breaks the bonds tying Death to their will and then flees. Instead of turning on them, Death declares that Castiel's arrogance is annoying and decides to help them yet again. He tells Dean that the things Castiel absorbed can be returned to Purgatory: they just have to return to Bootbock, Kansas, the place where they first confronted Castiel as a God, open another door to Purgatory, and convince him to give up his new power.

In order to open the door to Purgatory, Death agrees to create another eclipse at 3:59 AM on Sunday. They have very little time, and Dean seems to have given up before even trying to talk to Castiel. Sam, despite the fact that he is suffering hallucinations and nightmares, refuses to give up, and prays to Castiel.

Meanwhile, Castiel awakens in a campaign office, covered in blood and horrified that he unconsciously slaughtered everyone in the office. When he hears Sam's prayer, he answers and admits that he needs their help. Dean, Sam, and Bobby take him back to Crowley's old hideout in Kansas. A jar of the blood that they need is in a supply closet there, and Sam goes to retrieve it while Dean and Bobby prepare to open the door to Purgatory. While alone, Sam sees Lucifer. He tells him that he knows he's a hallucination, but Lucifer convinces him that he's still in hell, and that everything else is a hallucination.

Castiel apologizes to Dean for the things that he did and his arrogance, and says that if he still had the power, he would heal Sam. Dean isn't really comforted, and Castiel can sense that things still aren't right between them. As they talk, their window of time before the eclipse is closing, and Dean goes looking for Sam. He doesn't find him, but he does find the jar of blood in the hall. He rushes back with the blood and paints the ritual symbol on the wall. They stand Castiel in front of the wall, and Bobby says the ritual words. Castiel apologizes to Dean one last time before the door to Purgatory opens as planned. A bright light emanates from Castiel and rushes into the opening. After a few moments, Castiel collapses and the door closes again.

At first, Castiel appears dead, but he revives, and Dean and Bobby are relieved. They stand him up and decide to find Sam and get out of there. Before they can even get out of the room, though, an internal battle wages inside Castiel: the Leviathans hung on and are still inside him. As they watch in horror, a Leviathan takes control of Castiel's vessel and throws both Dean and Bobby against the walls, claiming that Castiel is gone and that "this is going to be so much fun."

Quotes

Castiel: Once you were my favorite pets, before you turned and bit me.

Dean: What exactly are you looking for?Bobby: Exactly! What? Miracles? Mass visions? A trenchcoat on a tortilla?

Castiel: You're wrong. I am utterly indifferent to sexual orientation. On the other hand, I cannot abide hypocrites like you, Reverend. Tell your flock where your genitals have been before you speak for me.

Sam: Motivational speakers?Dean: Yeah, I'm not sure new Cas gets irony any better than old Cas.

Parishoner (on seeing Castiel): We all saw him. No beard, no robe. He was young and… and sexy. He had a raincoat—

Crowley: You fancy a drink before you smite me?

Castiel: No.

Crowley: You like to bend 'em right over, do you?

Dean: Not going to get my hopes up just to get kicked in the daddy pills again.

Sam: What new boss?

Crowley: Castiel, you giraffe.Bobby: Is your boss?Crowley: He's everybody's boss! What do you think he's going to do when he finds out we've been conspiring? You do... want to conspire, don't you?

Bobby: No, we want you to just stand there and look pretty.

Dean: You know how I'm going to deal? I'm going to stuff my pie hole. I'm going drink. And I'm going to watch some Asian cartoon porn and act like the world's about to explode. Because it is.

This may be a reference to or veiled swipe at the Westboro Baptist Church, a fringe religious group headed by Fred Phelps which is notorious for picketing the funerals of U.S. soldiers and other events to espouse their anti-gay and anti-Semitic messages.

Though the word is not used in the episode, the term for killing a god is deicide.

When in the church, Castiel changes the stained glass window from an image of Jesus as a shepherd to one of himself.

Crowley: Educate me, Lewitsky!

This may be a veiled reference to Monica Lewinsky, the infamous White House intern and lover of Bill Clinton. Pentagon official Linda Tripp, a friend of Lewinsky's, was involved in getting evidence of the affair. She once famously said "Monica is a very worldly person. She educated me."

This is a reference to the famous "You're no Jack Kennedy" line, used by Lloyd Bentsen during his 1988 vice presidential debate with Dan Quayle, who had previously been comparing his limited experience in the U.S. Senate to John F. Kennedy's before he was elected president. It has since become one of the most famous and most quoted or parodied zingers in political history. Watch the clip here.

The politician running for re-election in the episode is named Sen. Michelle Walker, who is railing against "the godless policies of my opponents." This may be a reference to Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, the socially conservative House Republican who is running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. The surname may be a reference to the conservative Governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker.

Bobby: Let's light this candle!

Eager to start the ritual to bind Death, Bobby quotes astronaut Alan Shepard, who yelled "Let's light this candle!" while waiting inside his Mercury capsule for the command that would start the countdown and make him the first American in space.

Death also refers to the leviathans as "the Old Ones," a term used by H.P. Lovecraft in the Cthulhu mythos to describe ancient powerful alien beings who come to Earth. A race called the Old Ones also features in Stephen King's Dark Tower series.

Guano is another term for batshit - a reference to the phrase - to be "batshit crazy."

Minutiae

The episode was the second shot for the season as the third episode, which was directed by Jensen, was shot first to allow him the week needed to work with the crew as they prepped the episode.

In the Supernatural tradition there is a new Title Card for the season.

Dean is wearing a Survivor "Eye of the Tiger" t-shirt at the beginning of the episode while repairing the Impala. "Eye of the Tiger" was a song Dean lip-synced to in 4.06 Yellow Fever, which famously became a special outtake aired after the episode.

Misha Collins is not a series regular in season seven (as he was in seasons five and six), and is listed in the credits as a "Special Guest Star."

Binding Spell for Death, with note from Crowley attached

The post-it note on the ritual from Crowley reads:

BYE FOREVER

YOU FOOLS

KISSES

C

The binding spell used on Death (written in red ink) reads:Invoco Mortem.Te in mea potestate.Defixi.Nunc et in aeternum.

I call upon Death.Thee for my power.Fastened.Now and for eternity.

Sen. Walker's campaign office has a whiteboard that says "Election day is only 26 days away!" The U.S. 2012 elections take place on November 6; therefore that day's events in the episode could take place on Thursday, October 11, 2012. Also on the whiteboard is the ironic statement: "Rally at City Hall 2 pm Tues (security is our priority)."